Tracked
Established Member
Another vote for 180's, certainly in recent times (can remember 1st Gen units from the 80's, but personal experience would only have been of what was good enough to make it to that point I suppose). Many happy days a couple of years ago arriving into Doncaster from Sheffield to find the station in chaos because a Hull Trains 180 had decided to have a nice sit down and a burn somewhere along the ECML, I'm sure at one point it was happening nearly as often as the wires going down in the Retford area ... (incidentally, do we need a thread on Unluckiest TOC; I'll nominate Hull Trains for replacing their 180's for 802's just in time for the start of a pandemic). Seem to remember something on here about Hull Trains' problems, suggesting the Grand Centrals were more reliable but very high maintenance?
The other candidate: 141's, there's a lot on mentions of units upthread that had serious issues when first introduced/have specific faults in certain areas (Voyagers, and Dawlish. Other than that they seem very reliable units that smell of their toilets), but most of the others seem to have settled down into giving decent service (iirc though, the 141's reliability improved, but the passenger experience didn't).
The other candidate: 141's, there's a lot on mentions of units upthread that had serious issues when first introduced/have specific faults in certain areas (Voyagers, and Dawlish. Other than that they seem very reliable units that smell of their toilets), but most of the others seem to have settled down into giving decent service (iirc though, the 141's reliability improved, but the passenger experience didn't).